Phoenix-area high temperatures expected to plummet from 100s to 80s in coming days
Sep 28, 2023, 4:35 AM
Sweater weather is coming to Phoenix. The Valley is expected to see a stretch of days with highs in the 80s starting Sunday, Oct. 1, 2023, with overnight lows ranging from the upper 50s to low 60s. (Pexels Photo)
(Pexels Photo)
PHOENIX – Sweater weather? In Phoenix? Cool!
Temperatures are expected to take a nosedive this weekend after the Valley sees what could be its last triple-digit days of the year. The big chill is coming a week after the calendar flipped to fall, mercifully ending a historically hot and dry summer.
“It looks like the 100s may come to an end at the end of this week,” Mark O’Malley of the National Weather Service in Phoenix told KTAR News 92.3 FM on Wednesday morning.
“We’re looking for a big cooldown over the weekend.”
On average, Phoenix’s last 100-degree day has been Oct. 5.
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“We’re coming up on that day, and given the fact that it’s going to fall well below 100 this weekend, there is the possibility that we may … [see] our last 100-degree day on Friday,” O’Malley said.
“Still too early to say, but something to possibly look forward to.”
When will Phoenix start seeing highs in the 80s?
What’s more certain in the forecast is that the Valley could see a stretch of days with highs in the 80s starting Sunday, with overnight lows ranging from the upper 50s to low 60s across the region.
Phoenix hasn’t had a high temperature under 90 degrees since May 10.
The cooldown can’t come soon enough after a sweltering summer.
Phoenix experienced its hottest “meteorological summer” (June-August) since record-keeping began in 1895, including the hottest July and the second-hottest August. The daily average temperature of 97 degrees in June, July and August passed the previous record of 96.7 degrees set three years ago.
The city’s relentless summer heatwave included a record 31 consecutive days with temperatures of at least 110 degrees.
That streak helped make July in Phoenix the hottest month ever documented in a U.S. city, according to the Arizona State Climate Office.
Will Phoenix break record for driest monsoon season?
Meanwhile, the driest monsoon season ever recorded in Phoenix will come to an end Saturday. The season runs annually from June 15 through the end of September.
This season’s rainfall at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport gauges, which the National Weather Service uses for the city’s official data, is well below the previous record low of .35 inches in the 1924 season.
“Without any rain in the forecast, it looks like by Saturday, the end of the monsoon season, Sky Harbor will be sitting still at .15 inches and this will end up … being the driest monsoon on record,” O’Malley said.
KTAR News 92.3 FM’s Jim Cross and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
